One side of free-ranging poultry

Reasons we don’t free-range our poultry.

First reason. Coyotes. Foxes. Possums. Raccoons. Hawks. Owls. Loose dogs. Loose cats. We have lost or nearly lost poultry on the property to just about every predator on the list! We have had an owl smashing into the side of our coop trying to get at our birds. My children almost lost a remote control flying dragonfly to a swooping owl who pulled up at the last second when he realized the toy was NOT food!

Second reason. Chickens are like little destructive rototillers, and they will get in your garden and destroy a lot of plants in a big hurry! There was an elderly lady I went to church with years ago who had a really good system that took advantage of this. She had a large fenced in garden that was divided in the middle. One half was her garden, the other half was her chicken coop. When one season of growing was done, she would move the chickens to the garden side, where they would eat the remaining old vines and crops, larvae and bugs, weeds and their seeds…plus fertilize while they were at it! Next growing season, she would switch them back. She said her gardens were really productive!

Third reason. Poultry do not understand property lines, and may take their little destructive rototilling selves over to the neighbors.

Fourth reason. Attack birds! We had two guineas named Ed and Gurt. Ed was MEAN, and lost his freedom when he attempted to scratch the eyes out of my friend’s head with no provocation whatsoever. Into a cage he went! I was always grateful that my friend took it in stride…I told her if I had to choose a friend to get attacked by an animal on my property, she was on the list! Maybe it helped that she was a vegetarian.

Greetings!

Welcome to 'Ask The Homesteaders'!

My family and I have a small homestead on 4 acres. We have dairy goats, honeybees, chickens, a few pheasants, rabbits, 4 dogs, and 3 cats. We have also have a small garden and a few fruit trees. We do a little wild foraging, fishing and hunting. We know enough about homesteading not to be neubies anymore, but not enough to not make some pretty hilarious mistakes. Its all a learning process, anyway. We know a little bit about quite a few things, and hope that you enjoy following our adventures! And...fair warning. My sense of humor has been described as 'quirky'!!!!

Update on Max

It has been over a month and Max is still at the equine hospital. He had an impaction on December 7th. The 8th I stayed up with him until 1:00 am December 9th. I started to page the vet at 7:00 am on the 9th and finally made contact around 8:30 am. I told them Max was not moving, not eating and not really drinking. He appeared to be blind in his left eye. He was not looking good at all. They told me to bring him right into the vet.

I was doubtful that I could load Max because everytime I approached him, he would turn his hind feet towards me. When I went out, I took a bucket of warm water as it was in the lower 20s...I held it for him...and he drank! I then put a halter on him and started to lead him to the trailer. He was hurting, I could tell. And I also knew the ONLY reason he was following me was because he trusted me.

When we were about ten feet from the trailer, he stopped. I could not get him to move. About that time, my son Bear was feeding his horse, Diamond. I asked him to bring the feed and we used that to tempt Max into the horse trailer. IT WORKED! Max loaded just as faithfully as always. I said a prayer of thanks.

Once we were at the vet's office, we took his blanket off so she could give Max an exam. As soon as that blanket was off, my heart broke. He was so SWOLLEN! The blanket that had been loose the night before was now so tight that there was an indention around his neck: almost a 1/2 inch deep! He could only walk slowly. We determined that he had a reaction to the vitamin shot that I had given him on Tuesday night. Even though I had used a new needle and syringe and wiped his neck with alcohol, the fact that the bottle was almost empty was not good. Plus I used a 3/4 inch needle. I now know that one should always use at least a 1 1/2 inch needle. He ended up fighting the bacteria that causes gangrene.

Here is a link to learn more about what he had: http://www.ivis.org/proceedings/aaep/2002/910102000131.PDF

I will post more tomorrow about Max's fight for life.